We have a very exciting meeting planned for January. You don’t want to miss the unveiling of the Hands on LUG PHP Project effort!

In September we started the first of what we hope to be many hands on projects. For the first learning activity a PHP project was chosen. User group member organizations submitted potential projects and a project was chosen for the activity. The chosen project has been coded using PHP on IBM i served up using Zend Server and includes add, change, delete, call to an RPG program, email, PDF, Excel file creation and much more. Purposely, a robust application was chosen for the activity to enhance the learning experience. Participants signed up for the activity and teams were formed. Most participants had little or no PHP experience at the beginning of the activity. Each team was provided detailed specifications for the project and began with learning and reviewing PHP and Zend Studio basics.

The teams met using gotomeeting on Tuesdays throughout the course of the project to learn, collaborate, update progress, discuss project and share ideas. Everyone has stayed enthused and put forth a lot of effort during this learning activity. We have 3 completed projects that will be reviewed by a panel at January’s user group meeting. The completed projects are impressive and show what a great effort participants put forth. The panel will consist of staff members from the member organization who will be using the completed project, Mike Pavlak from Zend and a member of the PHP and IBM i community.

The meeting will begin with a brief review of the project specifications and will follow with a preview of the completed projects presented by team members. Panel members will evaluate the completed projects. During this session code and the completed project solution will be provided. After careful review a project will be chosen to implement live. The activity will be hosted by Laura Ubelhor and Mike Pavlak.

Completed project code and documentation will be shared. The intent of the activity is an experience for user group members to learn new skills working on a “live” project and also provide member organizations an opportunity to use new techniques and technology. Thanks to the grant awarded by Maxava the project was possible. We were able to acquire and use an iDevcloud box provided through Larry Bolhuis at a reduced price.

PHP Hands on participants include Gerry Abela, George Alderton, Michael Balbaugh, Erika Barber, Joy Chen, David Fairbarin, Michelle Gavalya, Charles Guarino, Wayne Johnson, Charles Nalbandian, Michael Parker, Cynthia Pas, Thad Shaffer, Ray Stephan, Dan Sylvester, David Thiery, Dale Thieme, Paul Thieme, Jim Thompson and Amanda Walsh. Credit is due to the participants for a great job well done. Those that participated took advantage of a great opportunity to enhance skills and did a wonderful job working together throughout the activity.

You will be able to join in on site at IBM in Southfield or will be able to join in remotely via webinar.